"The most important thing about goals is... having one."

-- Geoffry F. Abert

by Jami Petersen

This week, we go back to the basics and tackle sales training. We have surveyed the Scrapbooking.com Magazine community and asked them what they liked best about shopping at their local scrapbook store versus a larger chain store and the answer we heard time and time again is that scrapbookers appreciate the level of service and expertise they experience at local stores. That being said, even a marketplace that appears to be price driven is affected deeply by service. Make sure you read this week's Business SMART article to learn how to train a sales staff that will not only sell, but provide a level of service that will increase your customer base and keep your regular customers coming back.

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

Press Releases

News you can use about the latest media coverage of hot trends, noteworthy events and dynamic industry leaders. Learn more about the current headlines in arts and crafts by clicking on the title of each article segment.
 

Epson introduces the Stylus® NX625 – a powerful all-in-one with high-speed automatic two-sided printing, designed for busy households and students. As the world’s fastest printer in its class, this affordable all-in-one offers built-in Wi-Fi n, allowing families with multiple users or even college roommates to conveniently share one printer to quickly and flawlessly print everyday documents, photos or creative projects.

My Memories recently added American Crafts to its team of digital scrapbooking kit designers. With more than a decade’s worth of experience providing innovative and high quality scrapbook products, American Crafts has just introduced a series of digital scrapbook kits—including the new Backyard series—now available at the My Memories digital scrapbooking site.

Email Contact

See what Email Contact can do for your business or organization!

Email Contact includes everything you need to manage your email campaign from start to finish. We offer over 400 custom-designed templates as well as an online events calendar, targeted subscriber lists, and a statistics tracker. Not only is Email Contact easy-to-use but we also provide personal assistance whenever you need it. Join the thousands of businesses that are already using Email Contact to impress their subscribers.

EmailContact.com
 

by Dennis Conforto, A-Z Media Group

For too long now, scrapbooking retail stores have allowed themselves to hire retail clerks rather than retail salespeople.

A retail clerk spends most of her time behind the register. By contrast, a retail salesperson is out on the retail floor with the consumer. Retail clerks point to where the products can be found, but only when asked; retail salespeople take customers to the requested items, and then show them the features and benefits of various product options. The salesperson can categorize different products as good, better, and best.

It is easier to teach a natural salesperson how to cashier than to teach a cashier how to sell products. Hiring salespeople for a scrapbooking store is a lot different than hiring a retail clerk. First of all, salespeople have to be more committed, which is what your retail store needs anyway. Second, you don’t simply pay them an hourly salary - you pay a base plus commission so that they are rewarded for working the retail floor for your store. This will ensure that fewer people go out the door without buying and those that do buy, buy more.

Finding the right person to sell for your store is the key to your success. In fact, your number one job is to hire right, your number two job is to buy right. So the question is: "How do I hire the right person?"

The SMART Group offers sales profile questionnaires that can measure how your prospective employee will do as a salesperson. If you were a member of The SMART Group, you would be directed to the members-only site for such a questionnaire. The questionnaire can be taken online by your candidate at her own home. Once completed, the results are automatically forwarded to you with a comprehensive profile and commentary on your candidate.

In the book Good to Great, (highly recommended reading) author Jim Collins, asserts that the leader of any business has to get the right people on the bus (your business) and the wrong people off. And then once you have the right people on the bus, the next step is to get them in the right seats (jobs) as fast as possible. This is hard to think about, but in the end, nobody wins if you have the wrong staff. Those that don’t belong in your store lose as well, because they are losing the opportunity to do what they should and could be doing; which is the best use of their talents.

If you’re in retail today, you are in fact a selling company, not a display company for someone else’s inventory. Moving inventory is as complex as the selection of products found in the scrapbooking industry. Everyone who works for you needs to be selling all the time. You are in the business of promoting and selling one the greatest merchandise categories in the world today . . . SCRAPBOOKING.

With the information presented here, you are, we hope, considering a change in how you think about who your staff should be. The next steps are training these people.

Sakura

Stock up on proven sellers from Sakura of America. Consumers want products of consistent quality and value, so be sure to have Sakura's Pigma Micron®, Quickie Glue™, and Gelly Roll Stardust® pens in stock! Create additional impulse sales with low profile displays and cup displays including:

Micron 05 Low Profile Display

Gelly Roll Stardust Clear Cup Display

Quickie Glue Cup Display

Contact your local wholesaler for details, or visit www.sakuraofamerica.com for more information.
 

Craft Company Listed as One of America’s Fastest Growing Companies

Spellbinders™ Paper Arts, LLC, an award-winning inventor, manufacturer and marketer of cutting edge tools for crafters, announced today it has been named to the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest growing private companies in America. With an extraordinary three-year growth rate of 673%, Spellbinders Paper Arts is ranked 446 on this year’s list, No. 5 in the Phoenix Metro area and No. 25 in the Consumer Products & Services category. With over 27 million businesses registered in the United States, the Inc. 500 list represents the top-tier businesses in America today.

"Fast growth at any time is a big achievement; fast growth during the past few years is just short of miraculous," said Inc. editor Jane Berentson. "The Inc. 500 consists of these just-short-of miraculous companies, the ones that through ingenuity and ambition have increased revenue, hired employees, and grown fast in difficult economic times."

Each year, Inc. magazine ranks U.S.-based, privately held companies according to percentage growth. The fastest-growing list is an exclusive ranking of entrepreneurs nationwide – a group Inc. magazine refers to as the most important segment of the U.S. economy.

“It is an honor to be included in this year’s Inc. 500 list and recognized for our entrepreneurial achievements,” said Stacey Caron, Spellbinders’ President. “Our focus has always been on manufacturing innovative, quality products for crafters. This confirmation of our success is the ultimate recognition of our efforts to grow a business that is both rewarding and fulfilling.”

Spellbinders embraces Web 2.0 marketing methods. They have assembled a team of the best designers in the industry to share their expertise online through a variety of web communities.

About Spellbinders Paper Arts
Spellbinders™ entered the craft and hobby market in 2003 with the introduction of the Wizard® Universal Craft Tool and a unique, patented collection of dies unlike any introduced before - or since. Always on the cutting edge in introducing innovative tools to the market, the Grand Calibur™ and Presto Punch™ are the company's latest offerings for crafters. Spellbinders product lines include more than 250 patented and patent-pending products, allowing crafters, hobbyists, artists and teachers to create one-of-a-kind, beautiful paper art projects.